“O’Reilly Expands into Washington
with More Vineyards, New Winery”

It’s not an unfamiliar sight to see Oregon winemaker David O’Reilly driving around the hills surrounding the Yakima Valley in his high-mileage Ford Explorer, scouting out vineyards and vineyard locations for possible fruit sources. O’Reilly is expanding his winery operations in Washington State, and his number one goal is to locate the best vineyards for wine production.

The winemaker who co-founded Sineann Winery and is the co-owner and winemaker for Owen Roe Winery will be introducing new wines and bringing a new Washington winery to the market.

O’Reilly is outwardly ever-changing—an ideas man with a keen sense of marketing and a knack for making something work by making it the best he can. He does little advertising for his winery, or for his value-oriented offshoot labels, O’Reilly's and Sharecropper's, but he rarely has any inventory left by the vintage’s end. Driven, but not manically so, he continues to look for new possibilities and new challenges that push the wine envelope—balanced soils, better canopy, lower crop yields and where possible, organic viticulture. O’Reilly thinks and re-thinks, garners opinions, and most of all scours the landscape to keep up with his growing efforts in the wine industry.

Inwardly, his drives are still the same—family (he and wife Angelica have eight home-schooled children), a constant desire to learn and be challenged, and a quality of life that focuses less on accumulating wealth and more on comfort and basic desires. He is meticulous and uncompromising in the winery and in the vineyard and has no problem selling off juice to someone else if it doesn’t meet his expectations.

Owen Roe wines are highly sought-after, using grapes from Oregon (with Pinot Noir as the flagship) and Washington (the high-end Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot).

Above, David O'Reilly in Washington State Vineyard

The New Winery and Wines

O’Reilly’s new winery is in Wapato, Washington.

Above, David O'Reilly with Red Willow Vineyard owner

“What defines this area is beautiful fruit, shallow soils and hillsides,” said O’Reilly while driving around the hills surrounding Yakima. “The acids in the fruit are great. We found green growers who don’t manipulate the fruit.”

Although a designated appellation, the Yakima Valley has been under the radar for many years, with the likes of Walla Walla and the Columbia Valley appellations garnering most of the attention. O’Reilly says the region is still being explored, “There is something really wild west about this area—there are so many places to discover.”

The Ireland-born winemaker isn’t pulling up his Oregon Pinot Noir roots, but rather planting new ones Washington. Many of the high-end red wines produced under the Owen Roe label are now made at the new winery.

By purchasing the Outlook Vineyard, O’Reilly is expanding his wine offerings to include wines at all price points, but adding much more in the value wines category. The more exclusive Owen Roe wines will also have some new sources, but O’Reilly gave himself more options with the new vineyard and new vineyard sources.

Red Willow Vineyard in the Yakima Valley

Vineyards Added to the Portfolio

In addition to the purchase of 280 acres of the Outlook Vineyard, O’Reilly added Rattlesnake Hills Vineyard (56 acres) to his portfolio. The vineyard is near the town of Union Gap, and the winemaker says he will likely change the name. In addition, O’Reilly discovered a tiny, three-fourths of an acre of Cabernet Franc tucked away in the middle of nowhere, called Slide Mountain and immediately became the only client after tasting the fruit.

Mike Sauer, owner of Red Willow Vineyard in Yakima, says O’Reilly rescued his vineyard after Columbia Winery pulled out of their large contracts a few years ago and left Sauer with tons of unspoken-for vines. O’Reilly got wind of the available fruit and immediately drove to the vineyard, where he and Sauer knocked out the grape contracts.

Above, David O'Reilly shows off his new vineyard

“After a while, you know what you are looking for, and Red Willow had the right soil and great exposure,” said O’Reilly.

Other vineyards in the Owen Roe portfolio from Washington include the DuBrul Vineyard, where his top-tier wines, such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot are produced, Elerding Vineyard (Horse Heaven Hills), Elephant Mountain Vineyard, Wallula Vineyard and Erickson Road Vineyard - all in or near the Yakima AVA.

The Owen Roe label sources fruit from many vineyards in Oregon and even one Pinot Noir vineyard in the Santa Maria region in Northern California. O’Reilly makes Pinot Noir from the Dundee Hills, Chehalem and Eola Hills and Kilmore vineyards to name a few. His popular Abbot’s Table is a blend from vineyards throughout the Northwest.

“He has great flexibility each year,” says Matt Rice, who works at Owen Roe in distribution and marketing. “He doesn’t compromise on his wines. If it doesn’t fit what he wants, it will not go into the wine program.”

However, Rice says a wine that may not make it into O’Reilly’s top-end wine could be a part of his value wines, if the juice is good. With new fruit sources online, Rice says O’Reilly will have even greater choices for what goes into his various portfolios.

For example, the new value wines from Mirth and Lenore will likely compete at price points similar to the Magnificent Wine Company’s House Wine (founded by K Vintner’s Charles Smith of Walla Walla). The range could be from $8 to $15.

A New Winemaker Added to the Equation

As someone who believes in working with the best, O’Reilly insists on feeding his crews in Oregon and Washington at lunchtime with fresh food. He hires a cook to serve lunch daily. The crew sits down for the meal and talks about the work of the day or things they hear in the industry. If O’Reilly is in town, he joins them for a meal.

“He is a very good executive,” said Owen. “David is principled, driven to make great wine and puts the right team together to support what he is building.”

O’Reilly spends an extraordinary amount of time in vineyards&mdash. “The Yakima Valley has much to discover. There were bad wines made from that region in the early days, but we see great opportunities.”

With high scores for his opulent and rich Owen Roe DuBrul Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay and Riesling, O'Reilly says the wines speaks for themselves. The grapes from the Yakima AVA are carefully tended, with punch downs by hand, racking by gravity and nurturing along with way without winemaker interference. The labels are hand-crafted and a work of art by themselves.

Irrigated vineyard contrasts with high desert in central Washington

More Plans on the Horizon

O’Reilly is so convinced the undiscovered Yakima Valley will continue to yield beautiful fruit in the future, he is peering into the crystal ball of winemaking and planning on the philosophy of “if you build it, they will come.”

“I don’t need a showy Chateau to convince everyone about my wine,” O’Reilly said. “The wines will speak for themselves. The grapes will shine through. The terroir will be expressed in the glass.”

At his new vineyard, Rattlesnake Hills, O’Reilly inherited 12 acres of four different varieties of cherries. He plans to farm them organically for sale and can see products from the fruit. A talented chef who does most of the cooking for his family (and freezes meals when he is traveling in different markets across the country), O’Reilly said his wish lists include making organic cheeses.

O’Reilly sees the big picture in front of him, and has the patience to make the right decisions along the way, wait for the right timing and above all, spend the money to get the quality that he knows will pay off in the long run.

“I don’t know when he sleeps,” joked his assistant Matt Rice. “He is always on an even keel and optimistic. He is a unique guy.”

David O'Reilly and Owen Roe Winery

September 2001

If there is such a thing as the luck of the Irish, winemaker Owen Roe Winery's David
O'Reilly has found a pot of gold underneath his Willamette Valley,
Oregon rainbow.

O'Reilly is a dapper man- meticulous in appearance and in his work.
When he smiles, there is mischief in his eyes and smile crinkles-a
sign that smiling is a frequent behavior.

Everything about Owen Roe that O'Reilly touches has to be the best. It is almost an obsession
with him. From huge, gorgeous wines to hand-numbered bottles and objects
of art gracing his labels, O'Reilly spends the money for a total package.

"Every thing we do is meticulous," said O'Reilly, 37, one
of 12 children born in Belfast, Ireland. "What we do is totally
uncompromised. It is a lifestyle that includes hard work, but the product
is thoroughly rewarding."

Everything O'Reilly does is also thoroughly Irish. The wineries associated
with O'Reilly- Owen Roe, O'Reilly's
- have ties to his former homeland. Owen Roe was
named for Owen Roe O'Neil, a great Irish patriot. O'Reilly's,
features a drawing of a huge Irish wolfhound on the label.

" I like
to tell people that I got involved in the business to follow an Irishman's
dreams," said O'Reilly with a wink and an Irish brogue that comes
and goes. "Imagine making a living by drinking!"

He jokes of course, because O'Reilly is dead serious
about wine making. Although he enjoys the high ratings bestowed on
his wines, O'Reilly says he is more satisfied with great taste.

From Harsh Life to Lush Life

The combination of his Irish heritage and obsession about being the
best says a lot about the affable winemaker. His luck and his taste
for the good life wasn't always granted.

As a young child in Belfast, the O'Reilly family-all 14-was of modest
means. Life was harsh, and often violent as the family witnessed a
depressing catalogue of death and injury due to sectarian violence.

Between 1966 and 1999, a total of 3,636 people were killed and 36,000
injured as the conflict spread beyond Northern Ireland's borders onto
the British mainland and elsewhere, according to reports. Many of the
victims were innocent civilians.

O'Reilly said two of his uncles were murdered,
a sister suffered a traumatic injury, and one never knew when and where
a homemade bomb
would explode.His family scraped up enough money to move to British
Columbia, Canada just before his teen years, and O'Reilly never looked
back.

"I'm sure the past did have some impact on why I want the best
from what I produce," O'Reilly said, thoughtfully. "I'm not
like Frank McCourt in Angela's Ashes-I choose not to look back and
dwell on the past."

On to Oregon

Instead, O'Reilly looked to the future, majoring in philosophy at
Thomas Aquinas College in Santa Paula, CA, where he met his future
wife, Angelica. It was there that he discovered a love of land and
soil. He worked at a small winery in Southern California performing
all the tasks necessary to get the wine out the door.

"If you want to study truth and reality, it's grounded in nature," O'Reilly
said. "The wine business is drawn intrinsically to nature and
soil. You don't get into this business to make a fortune-I was drawn
to it."

For more than six years, O'Reilly worked for Elk Cove performing marketing
tasks. However, he was leaning more and more about winemaking. The
urge to make his own wine was singing inside his head. It was at this
time that he met Peter Rosback, an amateur winemaker who helped the
winery during crush.

Rosback was also bitten by the urge to produce wine. With Irish heritage
and love of good wine in common, they struck a partnership and created
Sineann.

"David has a great palate and is one of the best marketing people
in the state," Rosback said. "We're a good team. Each of
us brings talents to the table to produce the best wine we can. Of
course, it starts with great fruit, and that also has to be the best
we can get."

In addition to Sineann, Rosback also makes wines for Medici, where
the owners allow Sineann to be produced. He also consults with O'Reilly
on Owen Roe and O'Reilly's.

"Peter brings an irrepressible passion to everything he does," O'Reilly
said. "I think that's why we are such good partners."

O'Reilly and Rosback left Elk Cove in 1998 to produce wines in relatively
small quantities. While Sineann is produced at Medici, O'Reilly has
a new winery to produce Owen Roe and O'Reilly's. He spends a great
deal of time on the road, from spot to spot, overseeing vineyards.
He and Rosback purchase grapesfrom the Willamette Valley to Hood River
to Walla Walla and Columbia valleys in Washington state.

The good news comes in the form of a converted barn, his own facility
for Owen Roe and O'Reilly's. Sineann will continue production at Medici
for the time being.

"I will be happy to have one location to produce my wines," he
added.

Original Photo by David Brun for label

------------------

About the author:

For more than 20 years,
Christina Kelly worked as a newspaper reporter on the West Coast,
covering
education,
public
safety, government, business, environmental issues, entertainment and
minority affairs.

During the same time, the Washington
native began her lifelong interest in wine. After two decades in
the news reporting business,
Christina
decided it was time to concentrate on her passion — the wine
industry. She is our indispensable staff writer and columnist.

This intelligent, charming powerhouse
graces the Northwest wine industry with her insights, tastings
and conversations with those in an industry
that has exploded in the past few years.

Owen Roe's wood print label wines are have the same high quality and the fruit comes from the same sources. The wines are priced lower than the photogravure label wines. They include the Dubrul Riesling, the famous Abbot's Table, and the Columbia Valley Chardonnay.

The O'Reilly's label has an Irish Wolfhound engraving and the wines are great values. O'Reilly's Pinot noir, Chardonnay, and Pinot gris are all under $17.

Sharecroppers is a line of wines David made to celebrate the relationship with vineyard owners. He makes the wines in conjunction with the vineyard owners and they share the profit. Sharecroppers Pinot noir and Cabernet Sauvignon are rich and boldly flavored. Corvidae is a new line of value wines with unique labels, all related to the Crow. The Murphy's Law wines are a value label with red and white blends.

Owen Roe Winery's Chapel Block Red Willow Vineyard Syrah 07 received 97 points from Wine Spectator. Well deserved! Owen Roe's wines are the most popular on our website and rank in the Top Ten every year. Owen Roe makes wines under several labels.

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and its AVALON brand are not in any way affiliated with Avalon Wine, Inc, an Oregon corporation,
or Avalon Wine's store at its physical location in Oregon.

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